At its April 17, 2015 meeting, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission will consider a spectrum sharing proposal in 3.5 GHz to 3.65 GHz spectrum licensed to military radar services.
The a draft “Report and Order” would create a new “Citizens Broadband Radio Service” allowing entities to share that spectrum when not needed by the present licensed entities, and also allow unlicensed access when available as well, using a three-tier access policy.
“As a result of technological innovations and new focus on spectrum sharing, we can combine it with adjacent spectrum to create a 150 megahertz contiguous band previously unavailable for commercial uses,” said Tom Wheeler, FCC Chairman.
The lowest tier in the hierarchy, General Authorized Access (GAA), is open to anyone with an FCC-certified device and will operate much as Wi-Fi access does.
In the Priority Access tier, users of the band can acquire at auction targeted, short-duration licenses that provide interference protection from GAA users.
At the top of the hierarchy, incumbent federal and commercial radar, satellite, and other users will receive protection from all Citizens Broadband Service users.
Among the other issues to be addressed are permissible air interfaces, including Wi-Fi and Long Term Evolution-Unlicensed.
